Weizhe Hong
Weizhe Hong
Bioengineering

Weizhe Hong

Professor

Biography

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Dr. Hong is currently an Associate Professor of Neurobiology, Biological Chemistry, and Bioengineering at the University of California Los Angeles. Dr. Hong received his PhD degree in 2012 at Stanford University where he studied the molecular mechanism of wiring specificity during neural development. He was a Helen Hay Whitney Postdoctoral Fellow at the California Institute of Technology studying neural mechanisms of social and emotional behavior. He joined UCLA in 2016 as Assistant Professor and was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2020. He is also the recipient of a Young Investigator Award from the Society for Neuroscience, an Early Career Award from the Society for Social Neuroscience, a Mallinkrodt Scholar Award, a Vallee Scholar Award, a Searle Scholar Award, a Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering, a McKnight Scholar Award, a Klingenstein-Simons Fellowship, and a Sloan Research Fellowship.​

Faculty Information

Research and Interests
  • Neuroengineering
  • Systems Neuroscience
  • Behavioral Neuroscience
Notable Publications and Books
1. Zhang M, Wu YE, Jiang M, Hong W. (2024) Cortical regulation of helping behavior toward others in pain. Nature. 626, 136–144 2. Wu YE, Dang J, Kingsbury L, Zhang M, Sun F, Hu RK, Hong W. (2021) Neural control of affiliative touch in prosocial interaction. Nature. 599, 262-267 (Featured by Ranade. Nature Neuroscience. 24, 1640) 3. Hu RK, Zuo Y, Ly T, Wang J, Meera P, Wu YE, Hong W. (2021) An amygdala-to-hypothalamus circuit for social reward. Nature Neuroscience. 24, 831-842 (Featured by Szelenyi, Goodwin, and Golden. Nature Neuroscience. 24, 761-762) 4. Kingsbury L, Huang S, Raam T, Ye LS, Wei D, Hu RK, Ye L, Hong W. (2020) Cortical representations of conspecific sex shape social behavior. Neuron. 107, 941-953 5. Kingsbury L, Huang S, Wang J, Gu K, Golshani P, Wu YE, Hong W. (2019) Correlated neural activity and encoding of behavior across brains of socially interacting animals. Cell. 178, 429-446 (Featured by Omer, Zilkha, and Kimchi. Cell. 178, 272-274) 6. Chen PB, Hu RK, Wu YE, Pan L, Huang S, Micevych PE, Hong W. (2019) Sexually dimorphic control of parenting behavior by the medial amygdala. Cell. 176, 1206-1221 (Featured by Whalley. Nature Reviews Neuroscience. 20, 190-191) 7. Wu YE, Pan L, Zuo Y, Li X, Hong W. (2017) Detecting activated cell populations using single-cell RNA-seq. Neuron. 96, 313-329 (Featured by Jones and Reijmers. Neuron. 96, 248-249) 8. Hong W, Kim DW, Anderson DJ. (2014) Antagonistic control of social versus repetitive self-grooming behaviors by separable amygdala neuronal subsets. Cell. 158, 1348-1361 (Featured by Welberg. Nature Reviews Neuroscience. 15, 700-701) 9. Hong W, Mosca TJ, Luo L. (2012) Teneurins instruct synaptic partner matching in an olfactory map. Nature. 484, 201-207
In the News
Education
  • Postdoctoral Fellow, California Institute of Technology, CA (2015)
  • Ph.D. Neuroscience, Stanford University, CA (2012)
  • B.S. Biology, Tsinghua University, China (2006)
Awards and Recognition
  • 2023 H. W. Magoun Distinguished Lectureship, UCLA
  • 2023 National Finalist of the Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists
  • 2021 John H. Walsh Young Investigator Research Prize, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine
  • 2021 Keck Foundation Junior Faculty Award, W. M. Keck Foundation
  • 2020 Young Investigator Award, Society for Neuroscience 2020 Vallee Scholar Award, The Vallee Foundation
  • 2020 Mallinckrodt Scholar Award (the 69th Mallinckrodt Scholar), Edward Mallinckrodt, Jr. Foundation
  • 2019 Early Career Award, Society for Social Neuroscience
  • 2019 McKnight Scholar Award, McKnight Foundation
  • 2019 Kavli Fellow of Frontiers of Science, National Academy of Sciences
  • 2018 Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering, The David & Lucile Packard Foundation
  • 2018 Klingenstein-Simons Fellowship Award, Klingenstein Funds and Simons Foundation
  • 2017    Searle Scholar Award, Searle Scholars Program
  • 2017    Sloan Research Fellowship, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
  • 2016    NARSAD Young Investigator Award, Brain and Behavior Research Foundation
  • 2013    Helen Hay Whitney Fellowship
  • 2013    Category Winner in Developmental Biology, Science and SciLifeLab Prize for Young Scientist
  • 2013    Larry Sandler Memorial Award, Genetics Society of America
  • 2013    Larry Katz Memorial Lecture, Cold Spring Harbor